Morning Prayer and the Litany (1662 Book of Common Prayer)

LECTIONS. John Calvin on the Psalms. Keil & Delitzsch: Joshua. Matthew Henry: Isaiah. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown: Gospels. Matthew Henry: Revelation. Dr. Robert Reymond: Systematic Theology. Prof. Berkhof, Systematic Theology: Soteriology. Dr. Philip Schaff, Apostolic Christianity, Medieval Christianity, Swiss Reformation and Creeds of Christendom. Westminster Larger Catechism, 106-108 . For Psalm 13, Prof. Calvin outlines David’s long exposure to stresses and conflicts with the scars of soul. PTSD comes to mind. For Joshua 13, Prof. Keil discusses the list of conquered areas and the land for allocation. God knows every square inch while the OT Professors dig around for details. For Isaiah 2.10-22, Prof. Henry talks about how God takes down proud people who lift themselves to the heights of the mountains in security, complacency, and theological indifference. The pround think they're immune to divine discipline. For Mathew 2.1-12, Prof. Jamiesson marvels again at the protection of the holy family by guiding them to Egypt and by steering the magi to circumvent the devilish Herod. If devils attack Jesus like this, what might the rank and file expect? A cake-walk? For Revelation 7.1-8, Prof. Henry discusses the elect remnant of the 144,000, something abominated by the Greeks in Dositheus’s hit-piece Confession. We learn of the Greek malice against God's sovereign decrees and the elevation of man as running things. For Bibliology, Prof. Reymond notes that Kant’s dicta entails no other reference point that the knower. The phenomenal world is unknowable. Thanks, Immanuel, for telling us what God can and can't do in terms of revelation. For Soteriology, Prof. Berkhof describes regeneration’s agency: for Pelagians and liberals, one regenerates oneself. For Arminians and Semi-Pelagians, it is the same, although prepping grace enables such. The previous are self-salvation schemes. The Biblical truth is that the Triune God unilaterally regenerates a person. For Apostolic Christianity, Prof. Schaff, after having bragged about the towering German theologians, condescends to historians of low estate—the Englishmen. Perhaps unconscious of his early nationalism, he offers appreciatory comments about Charles Hardwick, Dr. Trench, Philip Smith, Dean Milman, Dean Stanley, Dean Farrar, Henry Mart Milman, Arthur Penryne Stanley and Frederick W. Farrar. So nice of you, Prof. Schaff, to give a hat tip to the English while you puffed the Teutons. For Medieval Christianity, Prof. Schaff describes St. Columba in Iona (d. 590s), again showing a vibrant Celtic Christianity before Gregory’s agents arrived in Canterbury. For the Swiss Reformation, Prof. Schaff discusses Paulus Piero Vergerius, a Papal agent, who interviews Luther and is a stout Papist who later disclaims this and converts to the Reformation. For the Creeds of Christendom, Prof. Schaff outlines Dositheus’ Confession, 1672, essentially Romanism with Petrine supremacy and the Filioque. It teaches dual-source authority and that the church cannot err. The Calvinists are “abominable, impious and blasphemous.” Mary is immaculate. Justification is by faith and works. The prayers of the saints help our prayer lives. It’s Romanism with a few twists. Westminster Larger Catechism, 106-108: Q. 106. What are we specially taught by these words, before me, in the first commandment? A. These words, before me, or before my face, in the first commandment, teach us, that God, who seeth all things, taketh special notice of, and is much displeased with, the sin of having any other God: that so it may be an argument to dissuade from it, and to aggravate it as a most impudent provocation: as also to persuade us to do as in his sight, whatever we do in his service. Q. 107. Which is the second commandment? A. The second commandment is, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.